The Egyptian military’s crackdown on supporters of ex-President Mohamed Morsi has plunged the world’s most populous Arab nation into its worst violence for decades. The country is teetering between a return to Mubarak-era autocracy and civil war.

Egyptian security forces interrupted a six-week-long stand-off
with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, launching a crackdown on two sit-in camps in
Cairo. The troops used armored bulldozers, tear gas and bird shot
to level and burn down tent camps, where people demanding Morsi’s
reinstatement as president were staging a round-the-clock
protest.

In the ensuing clashes, which spread from Cairo to other towns
and cities across the country, at least 638 people were
killed and 3,994 injured, according to a tally on Thursday by the
Egyptian Health Ministry. About two-fifths of the protesters
killed were in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where the biggest Muslim
Brotherhood sit-in was located.

The opposition claims that the number of casualties was much
higher, with a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman saying more than
4,500 people have been killed in what he described as a
“massacre.”

We will always b non-violent & peaceful. We remain strong,
defiant & resolved. We will push fwd untill w. bring down
this #Military_Coup

At least 43 people of those killed were security troops,
indicating the intensity of violence that both sides resorted to.
The Egyptian police and Morsi supporters accused each other of
using firearms in the clashes, with state media showing home-made
firearms and ammunition confiscated by the police at the protest
camps.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters continued to hold protest marches,
in defiance of the government’s crackdown and the state of
emergency they were attempting to enforce.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters stormed the Giza Governorate
and set it ablaze on, along with a nearby four-story
administrative building. While nobody was inside the more
imposing colonial-style governorate, people had to be evacuated
from the top floors of the second building as thick clouds of
smoke threateningly billowed around them.

The Interior Ministry stated mere hours after the attacks that
live ammunition will be used to repulse any attack on public
buildings or security forces.

Further unrest was witnessed in Egypt's second-largest city,
Alexandria, when hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets,
chanting “We will come back again for the sake of our
martyrs.” At least three people were killed and 55 others
injured when Muslim Brotherhood supporters clashed with local
residents at the rally in Alexandria, reported Al Arabiya.

Later in the day, US President Barack Obama announced that joint
US-Egypt military drills which had been scheduled to take place
next month are being called off in the wake of the violence.

Wednesday’s violence also saw the deaths of four journalists, including Mick Deane, a
61-year-old Sky News cameraman. Fatalities among media
professionals, who usually wear clothing and equipment
identifying them as journalists, are rare in countries not
engaged in warfare.

I've never seen such a bloody fight in Egypt.The security
forces kept us ducking behind cars,under a barrage of bullets
for 8 hours straight

The crackdown on the protesters included arrests of several
Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Security officials claimed that
Brotherhood leaders were instructing their followers to attack
police stations in the country. In the wake of the day of
clashes, the government announced a month-long state of emergency
and a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

The violence also had a clear religious angle to it, when Morsi
supporters targeted at least three Coptic Christian churches in
towns of Minya, Sohag and Assiut. Coptic Christians, who comprise
some 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 84 million, have
complained that the rise of the Brotherhood after the toppling of
longtime President Hosni Mubarak led to increased persecution of
Egypt’s Christians. Many Coptic Christians welcomed last month’s
military coup that deposed Morsi.

The clashes increased the strain on Egypt’s interim government,
with liberal Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei resigning Wednesday
evening in protest against the military crackdown.

"It has become difficult for me to continue bearing
responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose
consequences I fear. I cannot bear the responsibility for one
drop of blood," ElBaradei said in his resignation letter to
the country’s interim president.

Other liberal members of the interim government did not follow
ElBaradei’s lead, but his departure from the administration cast
doubt over the prospects of the armed forces being able to form
an inclusive and efficient government.

The military seem determined to continue their hard-fisted
treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood. Interior Minister Mohamed
Ibrahim vowed to restore Mubarak-era security to the country.

"I promise that as soon as conditions stabilize and the
Egyptian street stabilizes, as soon as possible, security will be
restored to this nation as if it was before January 25, and
more," he said in a reference to January 25, 2011, the day
when the huge demonstrations began that led to Mubarak’s
downfall.

Since the 2011 revolution,
Egypt’s security and already-weak economy have been gradually
deteriorating as the country descends into intensified power
struggles and weak governance. Under the rule of Mubarak, the
Muslim Brotherhood remained illegal, due to its past alleged
involvement in political assassinations.

The military’s apparent wish to return to Mubarak-style rule
indicates that the generals have failed to appreciate the changes
in Egyptian society that have occurred since the ousting of the
long-time leader in 2011, journalist and author Hugh Miles told RT.

“Islamism has become extremely popular, and what we’re really
seeing now in Egypt is a clash between people who want Islam as
their frame of reference, against people who want a more secular
kind of European-style frame of reference,” Miles told RT.
“And that’s a very fundamental divide. It divides families and
it divides Egypt. Probably, roughly half-and-half is the best
guess.”

After Wednesday’s violence, several international organizations
and countries, including the US, criticized the Egyptian military
for the violent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. US Secretary
of State John Kerry described the events as “deplorable,” a word
seldom used by diplomats.

Washington reportedly has threatened to cancel its main annual
joint military exercise with Egypt, which has been a symbol of US
support of the Egyptian military since the signing of the Camp
David peace accords between Egypt and Israel in 1978. The US
provides some $1.3 billion in military aid and about $250 million
in economic aid a year to Egypt. Some observers say this aid
could be used to put pressure on the current Egyptian leadership
to moderate its authoritarian rule.

Some Egypt-watchers believe that the US is reluctant to use its
financial leverage, however, due to a fear of antagonizing the
Muslim country and compromising the security of its neighbor,
Israel. The strain in relations was clear in the most recent US
attempt to mediate in the ongoing crisis, when Senators John
McCain and Lindsey Graham last week pleaded with the Egyptian
military to reinstate Morsi, only to receive a sharp rebuff.

“Egypt's new military regime and a sizable and vocal portion
of the Egyptian population have made it very clear that they just
want the United States to leave it alone,” political analyst
Marc Lynch argued in the online magazine Foreign Policy. “For
once, Washington should give them their wish. As long as Egypt
remains on its current path, the Obama administration should
suspend all aid, keep the embassy in Cairo closed, and refrain
from treating the military regime as a legitimate
government.”

Egypt’s government finances are currently running low, so Cairo
to a large degree relies on international aid and loans to
provide even basic commodities like wheat and fuel. Critics of
Morsi say during his year as president he was more interested in
sidelining the secular opposition than in carrying out
much-needed reforms.

The strongest international condemnation of Wednesday’s crackdown
came from Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been a
firm supporter of the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Ankara called on the UN Security Council and the Arab League to
stop the “massacre.” Several other countries in the region,
including Iran, Tunisia, the Arab Emirates and Qatar, also
criticized the crackdown.